Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University

Before, during, and after a rugby game played in
England between Oxford University and a touring
South African team, the South Africans were constantly
accompanied by a squad of police to protect
them from English student demonstrators. During
another game on the tour, fences were erected around
the athletic field to restrict the movement of fans and
no refreshments were sold to prevent fans from showering
the South African players with bottles and cartons.
On several other occasions, as many as five thousand
demonstrators fought with police trying to break up
what was termed by Peter Hain, 19-year-old chairman
of the Stop the South African Tour Committee, as an
attempt ". . . to turn South Africa's participation in
international sports into a farce." In Dublin, Ireland,
three thousand people turned out to demonstrate
against the touring South Africans. The incident is all
the more striking in light of the fact that Northern
Ireland is still in the throes of what amounts virtually
to a civil war. The demonstration was ultimately
broken up by the Irish police since, in their words
"It constituted a threat to public calm."
These international protests have lent added thrust
to the movement against South Africa's participation
in international athletics, a movement which started
before the 1968 Olympic Games and resulted in South
Africa's being banned from the games. But again,
seemingly everyone has gotten the message except the
ruling body in South Africa responsible for setting that
countries policies on race and athletics.
On January 28, 1970, South African Sports Minister
Frank Waring announced that Arthur Ashe would "not
be allowed to enter South Africa as a member of the
United States team to compete in the South African
open tennis championships or for any other reason due
to Ashe's general antagonism toward South Africa's
racial policies." World reaction to this blatant act of
racial discrimination was immediate. Even South
Preface to the Paperback Edition • xviii
Africa's own athletes spoke out against it. Gary Player
stated: "The Arthur Ashe case is probably the last
straw to make our isolation in the field of sport complete."
Cliff Drysdale, South Africa's leading tennis
player, said: "For this ridiculous act, we are going to
be kicked out of the Davis Cup matches. But this will
only be the immediate consequence. The present rugby
tour demonstrations will be a Sunday school picnic
compared to what South Africa's teams and individual
athletes will face abroad from now on." Vernon Slavin,
a South African swimmer stated: "I can see that soon
all South African athletes will be barred from the
United States as a result of this. They cannot continue
to let us [into the United States] when their
citizens can't come here. After that it is only a matter
of time before we wind up competing against each
other here because no other country will have us."
So the battle against apartheid is still being waged
and will be intensified if necessary until South Africa
either changes its policies or that country's athletes
have been barred effectively from all international competition.
The spread of unrest and protest against athletic
exploitation and injustice to schools such as Minnesota,
Wyoming, Iowa, Wisconsin, Oregon State, and
others indicate that the revolt will not soon die-in
spite of setbacks along the way. At Indiana, 14 black
athletes were summarily kicked. off the football team
and also lost their athletic grants-in-aid. At Wyoming
every black member of the football team was dropped
from the squad for wearing black armbands to protest
a game to be played against B.YD. But such acts of
retaliation only serve to feed the flames of the revolt.
Professional athletics have by no means been immune
from the impact of the revolt. Curt Flood currently
has a million dollar suit in court filed against
Preface to the Paperback Edition • xix